'There's no way I could walk out of the door in something that was going to be digging into my waist and that was so super-figure-hugging-tight that you can't visit the lavatory in it! I just can't be doing with all that. It's like torture, and if you are in pain then you can't enjoy the moment.

'Women should not have to be uncomfortable in what they're wearing. We're not living in Victorian times,' she added with a wry laugh.

Concerning which designer she has plumped for, Kate added: 'I haven't made a final decision yet as to who I'll be wearing. I think I can wear whatever I want, can't I? It would be nice to wear British, but it just doesn't always happen that way. It's going to be a case of whatever feels the most comfortable on the day.

'When you think about it, it's like the longest wedding of anyone's life. You really have to be ready to leave by three in the afternoon, you sit in all that traffic to get there and you don't take the dress off until three in the morning - if you're lucky,' Kate explained to me after flying into Los Angeles from New York.

Whatever Kate decides to wear on Sunday, she wants to get the balance right and not dress to excess with too much bling. 'There's a place for glamour in tough times, but you've got to be tasteful with it,' Kate told me. 'Overdoing it is not in.'

She pointed out she has plenty of previous when it comes to attending Academy Awards ceremonies. Sunday will be her sixth as a nominee and she has attended at least a couple of other times on the arm of her director husband, Sam Mendes. This time she has been nominated for her extraordinary portrait in The Reader of a German woman whose delayed understanding of wartime horrors destroys her.

Kate's the undoubted favourite, although, if there's going to be an upset, it will come from Meryl Streep and her performance in the film Doubt. Kate won her first nomination for best supporting actress in Sense And Sensibility in 1996, followed by a best actress citation for Titanic two years later.

In 2002 she was a best supporting contender for Iris. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind gave her another best actress chance in 2005, with another opportunity two years later with The Little Children.

'I don't take any of it for granted. Being nominated is a great honour, and walking the red carpet is a rare special moment for any actress. The day I start saying it's a drag is the day I hang up my hat and go home. There's really no point doing any of it unless you're going to have a good time - and, win or lose, I'm going to have a good time,' Kate told me.

By the way, I notice there has been some confusion over Kate and The Reader. For the record, Kate was offered it first, but for various reasons couldn't do it. Others were considered before Nicole Kidman took it on, but she withdrew after she became pregnant, and then Kate was asked a second time and she happened to be available then.

So there you go.

• KATE WINSLET wins it! That's the view of the new edition of Time magazine. Kate's on the cover and there's no hedging bets - the magazine calls her the best actress winner.

It would be absolutely fantastic if that came to pass on Sunday.

A walk-on for Marion

Marion Cotillard, last year's best actress winner, told me she will be one of the presenters at Sunday night's Oscar show, but she won't know the category until she attends rehearsals later today and tomorrow.

Usually, the previous year's best actress winner hands over the Academy Award to the new best actor, and so on.

'I don't know if that's happening this year,' Marion explained when we bumped into each other at the Chateau Marmont on Sunset Boulevard, which seems to be party central this week.

'They don't want the usual expectations this year,' Marion said of the Oscar show producers, who have pledged to 'shake' the show up. Indeed, Robert Pattinson, the British actor who plays the dashing vampire Edward in the film Twilight and the sequel being shot now, will inject some new blood as a presenter, as will the well-mannered Zac Efron from High School Musical.

Marion was also in Los Angeles to do a photo-shoot for Vogue with some of the 'girls' from movie musical Nine, including Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman and Kate Hudson.

Penelope will be at the Oscars as a best supporting actress nominee for Vicky Cristina Barcelona, but there's no info yet as to whether Nicole and Kate will participate in the ceremony.

Madonna tucks into meal... and 'toyboy' Jesus

Madonna was busy tucking into her meal - and hot toyboy Jesus Luz.

The 50-year-old singer was openly groping and kissing Brazilian model Luz ,22, as she sat at a table located towards the back of the Cecconi's restaurant in West Hollywood.

The couple were publicly passionate as they dined at the restaurant which is part of London's Ivy restaurant and Soho House club empire.

In fact their behaviour would have been steamier, but an executive from the Kabbalah was sitting with them.

Madonna was in Los Angeles to prepare for an Oscars after party she plans to co-host on Sunday night.

Cecconi's was one of the hot spots on Thursday night with Sir Elton John and Sienna Miller also enjoying supper and cocktails there.

Los Angeles becomes party capital of the US over the next three days and nights as Oscar nominees and their friends and relations, plus people they've never met in their lives, attend waves of parties and events over what some call the Oscar Weekend.

Some of them will go to a little show called the Academy Awards which starts late on Sunday afternoon,and then it's on to more parties that will continue well into the early hours of Monday morning.

T4 - Without the tantrum

Christian Bale will close the Cannes Film Festival in May, not by letting loose a tirade of expletives (as he notoriously fired at a colleague during filming) but with the movie Terminator Salvation.

A group of executives involved with the picture, which stars Bale as earth's saviour John Connor, were celebrating their Cannes coup at the Beverly Hills Hotel's fabled Polo Lounge on Wednesday.

I'm a big fan of the first two Terminator movies, and I made myself tolerate T3: Rise Of The Machines. The original 1984 film with Arnold Schwarzenegger is a sci-fi thriller masterpiece.

Anyway, T4, which opens in the U.S. on May 22 (the UK has to wait until June), is a good reason, I guess, to hang around long enough for the annual film fest in Cannes to wind down.

It's so expensive, and a lot of folk out here in Hollywood have told me they won't be flying to the South of France this year. But the T4 trailer makes me want to see how Bale will save the the earth from being scorched by killer cyborgs. I'm told that two other Terminator films are being planned with Bale as the star.

Partying heartily

Slumdog Millionaire is the only real British film in the Oscars. It was developed by Tessa Ross at Channel 4's film division who worked closely with writer Simon Beaufoy and the astute London-based producer Christian Colson.

It's quite a coup when you think about it that this film, thanks partly to the marketing power of Fox Searchlight in the U.S. and Pathe in the UK, has come such a long way.

After Vanity Fair's Oscar party, the bash that's going to be thrown by Fox Searchlight when Slumdog wins - and it's impossible for it to lose now - is going to be the one to watch. It may last for days!

• The Brits make the best party hosts during Oscar week. Nick Jones of Soho House has set up the West Hollywood outpost of Cecconi's (a hot London restaurant) and all week it has been hosting events on the site of the old Morton's restaurant, which is where Vanity Fair used to hold its Oscar party (VF has moved its 'do' to Sunset Towers this year).

Cecconi's looks fabulous and I've eaten there, but I'm leaving my Grey Goose cocktail, the Bazalicious, on the bar until after the Oscars - the UK Film Council's holding a get-outof-town soiree at Cecconi's on Monday.

• Charles Finch, the London-based agent and producer, hosts one of the weekend's biggest parties tomorrow night with Chanel. Charles throws the hot pre-Bafta bash at Annabels in London and wanted to put on what he called a 'relaxed' evening where friends (mostly stars) could drop in for a bowl of hand-made pasta and a drink or two or three.

Mirror, mirror, off the wall

Melissa Leo finds herself 'kind of bland'

As one of the five best actress Oscar nominees, Melissa Leo is getting used to reflecting success.

But she credits her ability to 'disappear' into a role to her mother, for not allowing her to use a mirror. 'It begins with her disallowing vanity. I remember not understanding why my mother didn't like me looking in the mirror,' Melissa, 48, told me over breakfast before she went in search of a gown to wear for Sunday's Oscars.

She is in the running against the likes of Kate Winslet and Meryl Streep for her role in Frozen River, in which Melissa plays a woman forced to drive immigrants across the Canadian border in an old green car.

'I find myself kind of bland,' she told me. 'It's only what I've done that makes me interesting. I myself am quite a blank slate.' But it's that blank slate that makes her such a thrill to watch on screen.

Along with her mother, she also credits the year she spent at Mountview Stage School in North London when she was a teenager. Frozen River has no UK distributor, but it should have because it epitomises the economic peril that has swept across the U.S. and Europe.

By the way, if you want to check out just how powerful an actress Melissa is, look at her performance as Benicio Del Toro's wife in the film 21 Grams. She's also up for an award at tomorrow's Film Independent's Spirit Awards in Santa Monica.

Slumdog's Dev takes Hollywood in his stride

DEV PATEL one of the stars of Slumdog Millionaire - the favourite to win the best filmOscar on Sunday - has been backwards and forwards between London and LA ever since the movie captivated audiences at the Toronto International Film Festival back inSeptember.

Dev was perfectly happy then to be wearing a suit he bought in the High Street in London. 'I was more than chuffed with River Island, and now everyone's throwing Armani, Burberry, Dior at me,' he says.

This week in LA every studio has courted him, producers want him, young women throw themselves at him - Sharon Stone even gave him a playful slap. At 18 he's the star of a Bafta-winning movie, developed at Film 4 in London, that is almost certain to clean up at the Oscars.

'I'm a kid from Rayners Lane, in Harrow,' he told me. 'I live near a council estate. Yet I've been swept along on this Slumdog tidal wave.

'I've met Anne Hathaway, Drew Barrymore, Kate Winslet, Sharon Stone and Penelope Cruz. Clint Eastwood said "Hi", Mark Wahlberg said he wanted to work with me andQuincy Jones - Quincy bloody Jones! - shook my hand and he didn't want to let go. 'I used to go naked and take pills when I was in Skins on television; now my first film could win the Oscar,' he said breathlessly.

He's incredulous because his great success just doesn't tally with his expectation of his life. He said that working with Slumdog's director Danny Boyle made him take acting seriously and gave him confidence.

The thing I like about Dev, having observed him closely these past few months, is how down-to-earth he has remained. As Boyle noted, if he hadn't been so grounded and close to his family, the whole experience could have screwed him up. 'The good thing right now is that my home life hasn't changed that much,' Dev told me.

'I'm still in the same home I grew up in, still have the same friends. I've got a little box room at home, and if I stretch my arms I can touch each wall sidewise. It's full of Bruce Lee posters, and my bedsheets have got all these Chinese numbers on them.

'It's like I live in two different worlds. I jump on the Metropoliton Line in London and I jump in limos in LA.'

But he modestly protests: 'There's nothing star quality about me: I'm lanky, I've got big ears, I'm not the best-looking guy, nor the cleverest. But if I can do it, others can.'

A pupil from his old school summed it up perfectly when he told Dev: 'You know what, dude? You're opening doors.'

He flies directly from LA next week to shoot his first post-Slumdog movie M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender in Greenland where Dev will display his love of martial arts. There are a lot of action scenes and it's primarily for a young audience.

He's being courted to be in other pictures, but, for now, he's just going to enjoy the crazy Oscar parties, the cocktails and the canapes.

Watch out for...

• MAX BEESLEY, who has been in Hollywood completing a screenplay called Mr Goodnight set against the backdrop of the Manchester mafia in the mid-1960s. Max, who stars in the TV drama Survivors, and producer Gub Neal are assembling a cast to shoot the film on locations in Manchester later in the year.

• JANE FONDA, who is returning to Broadway as a classical music scholar in Moises Kaufman's drama 33 Variations, which is in early previews at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre. I caught the play before I headed West and I was impressed with Fonda's turn as an expert seeking the real story behind Beethoven's epic 33 Variations.

Backstage, the 71-year-old actress said that they were still 'cutting', and by opening night next month ten minutes or so will be gone which would transform the first act. Once I got into it I found it a compelling piece, very absorbing, and it was great to see Fonda work within an ensemble that included Samantha Mathis, Colin Hanks, Don Amendolia, Zach Grenier, Erik Steele and Susan Kellermann.

The play flits between the present day and Beethoven's era. There's a family dynamic going on, but it gives too much away if I tell you what it is. Fonda was excited that she picked a new play rather than a 'safe' revival, and I share her excitement as long as the cuts work.

• STEVE COOGAN, who is busy writing his spiciest gags for when he hosts the annual Film Independent's Spirit Awards tomorrow under a mammoth marquee that has been erected on the beach at Santa Monica.

If going to the Oscars is like church, where you dare not misbehave, the Spirit Awards are more like play school for grown-ups (the alcohol helps) and the host is allowed to be as raunchy as possible.

One cool dude: Anthony Mackie

Lots of good movies, such as The Visitor, Rachel Getting Married, Frozen River and Milk, are up for honours. But one of my favourite films is the gripping Iraq war drama The Hurt Locker, about a U.S. bomb disposal squad, and the superb performances by Anthony Mackie and Jeremy Renner have been nominated.

Mackie, one of the coolest actors around, portrays Tupac Shakur in the movie Notorious. Steve McQueen's celebrated picture Hunger, about Irish Republican Bobby Sands, is in the running for best foreign film.

Incidentally, Gus Van Sant, director of the best picture contender Milk, was honoured at a private pre-Oscars supper which a lot of people attended. Penelope Cruz was there and she's not even in the film. Milk's star Sean Penn may garner his second Oscar trophy (if Mickey Rourke doesn't beat him to it) and some expressed surprise that Penn didn't put in an appearance.

• SIMON RUSSELL BEALE, Rebecca Hall, Morven Christie, Dakin Matthews, Sinead Cusack, Josh Hamilton, Richard Easten, Tobias Segal and others who are part of The Bridge ensemble in Sam Mendes's production of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale which is in preview at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. I'm not that familiar with this play, so I was grateful for Mendes's clear-headed interpretation and I've enjoyed seeing Beale, Hall, Cusack, Easton and Hamilton in this special company. They also did The Cherry Orchard, where I thought Ms Cusack was luminous.

The two plays travel the globe and hit the Old Vic from May 22. I was struck by Anthony Ward's designs for the productions, where both plays opened on sets that appeared to be children's nurseries. My sense was that the key characters have to grow up before they can really live their lives.

I hope I can see the plays later on in the run to see how the cast develops. They certainly looked as if they were having the time of their lives.

Director Mendes will be racing from New York to join Kate Winslet in LA, where he will escort her along the red carpet on Sunday and hug her when she wins.

• Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are going to be very happy when the awards season ends on Sunday night.

They've been very gracious turning up at countless awards shows at which they've been nominated for their respective roles in The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button and Changeling, but they've told friends that they're a tad tired of putting on that 'game loser's' smile night after night.